Genesis 27

¹When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him: My son; and he answered him: Here I am.

²He said: Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.

³Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me,

⁴and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.

⁵Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,

⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob: I heard your father speak to your brother Esau,

⁷Bring me delicious food, such as he loves, that I may prepare from it delicious food for your father, so that he may eat it and bless you before he dies.

⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.

⁹Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.

¹⁰And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.

¹¹But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

¹²Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.

¹³His mother said to him: Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.

¹⁴So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved.

¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.

¹⁶And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

¹⁷And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

¹⁸So he went in to his father and said: My father. And he said: Here I am. Who are you, my son?

¹⁹Jacob said to his father: I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.

²⁰But Isaac said to his son: How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He answered: Because the Lord your God granted me success.

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob: Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.

²²And Jacob approached Isaac his father, and he felt him, and he said, 'The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau.'

²³And he did not recognize him, for his hands were like the hands of Esau his brother, hairy. And he blessed him.

²⁴He said: Are you really my son Esau? He answered: I am.

²⁵And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's game, so that my soul may bless you. And he brought it near to him, and he ate. And he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶And his father Isaac said to him, Come near, please, and kiss me, my son.

²⁷And he came close and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments, and he blessed him and said, 'See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.'

²⁸And may God give you of the dew of the heavens and of the fatness of the earth, and abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!

³⁰And it happened that scarcely had Jacob gone out from the presence of Isaac his father when Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

³¹And he too prepared delicacies, and brought them to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father rise and eat of his son's game, so that your soul may bless me.

³²And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.

³³And Isaac trembled with a very great trembling, and said, Who then was it who hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate of all of it before you came, and I blessed him? Indeed, blessed he shall be.

³⁴As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father: Bless me, even me also, O my father!

³⁵But he said: Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.

³⁶Esau said: Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Have you not reserved a blessing for me?

³⁷And Isaac answered and said to Esau, Look, I have set him as lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him as servants. And with grain and new wine I have sustained him. And for you — what then shall I do, my son?

³⁸And Esau said to his father, Is it only one blessing you have, my father? Bless me, also me, my father. And Esau lifted his voice and wept.

³⁹And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Look, of the fatness of the earth shall be your dwelling, and of the dew of the heavens from above.

⁴⁰And by your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve. But it shall be when you grow restless, that you shall break his yoke from off your neck.

⁴¹And Esau bore a grudge against Jacob on account of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill Jacob my brother.

⁴²And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, Look, Esau your brother is comforting himself by planning to kill you.

⁴³And now, my son, listen to my voice; arise and flee to Laban my brother, to Haran.

⁴⁴And dwell with him a few days, until your brother's fury turns away from you.

⁴⁵Until your brother's anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him, and I will send and take you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?

⁴⁶And Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these, from the daughters of the land, what good is my life to me?